


Say Cheese

by tehkusogaki



Category: Gravitation
Genre: Comedy, Crude Attempts at Humor, Fluff, Lime, M/M, and what you all came for: hardcore nudity!, attempts at crude humor, but not as explicit as i'm sure you're hoping for, extreme silliness, sex! sex! sex!, stray bits of fluffy sap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-05
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-13 23:12:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13580934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tehkusogaki/pseuds/tehkusogaki
Summary: When Shuichi realizes that he doesn't have any pictures of Eiri smiling, he goes to extreme measures to get one- driving Eiri completely crazy in the process.





	1. The Declaration

**Author's Note:**

> Many, many thanks to my friend and beta reader, lawless. Without her many, many pokes of encouragement, I might not have ever gotten this done. However, I was the last person to touch this, so any mistakes herein are mine.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuichi makes a discovery and a challenge is made.

“Ah-ha!”  
  
Eiri paused his typing and looked up from his monitor just in time to see a quick blur of bright pink followed shortly by a flash of light.   
  
“Shuichi! What the hell?!” he shouted, trying to blink away the dark spots that had formed in front of his eyes.  
  
“Shh, quiet, Yuki!”  
  
Floored by the fact that the annoying menace had actually shushed him, Eiri sat in stunned disbelief while he stared in the direction where he’d last seen Shuichi.  
  
“Ohh…” Shuichi sighed with disappointment. “It didn’t work.”  
  
Eiri’s vision finally cleared and he saw the kid sitting cross-legged on the floor fiddling with a digital camera, looking rather disappointed.  
  
“What didn’t work?” he snapped irritably. “Because if you were trying to blind me, I’d say you were pretty damn successful! Now, what the fuck is it you’re up to exactly?”  
  
“Oh! Sorry, Yuki,” Shuichi hastily apologized, looking up at the fuming novelist as though he had just noticed he was in the room. “I thought it might work if I caught you off guard but…”  
  
“But what? What are you plotting?”  
  
“Nothing.”  
  
“Bullshit! What are you trying to do?”  
  
“Get a picture of you smiling.”  
  
“Huh?”  
  
Shuichi sighed. Instead of bothering to explain himself, he lurched forward from his seated position and crawled on all fours to where Eiri was sitting at his computer. Eiri raised an eyebrow at the childish display, but when Shuichi approached him he pushed his office chair away from the desk so the boy could pull himself onto his lap.  
  
“I just realized today,” Shuichi began after making himself comfortable, “that I don’t have a single picture of you smiling.”   
  
He started to toy with the camera in his hands again before continuing sadly. “I thought if I snapped a photo of you when you weren’t expecting it, maybe I’d get lucky and catch you in a good mood, but it didn’t work out at all. You look like a deer caught in the headlights.”   
  
“Let me see.” Eiri snatched the camera away from Shuichi before he could protest and stole a peek at its screen. He grimaced at the frightening image and, unwilling to come to terms with its existence, quickly deleted it.  
  
“YUKI! NO!” Shuichi wailed. He tore the device away from Eiri as quickly as he could but the damage had already been done. “How could you? That picture was precious to me.”  
  
“What on earth are you blubbering about? You barely took that picture a minute ago, and I thought you were upset because I wasn’t smiling in it.”  
  
“I was, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it.”  
  
“Shuichi, it was a terrible picture.”  
  
“No, it wasn’t.”  
  
“Was too.”  
  
“Nuh-uh, Yuki, I liked it. At least it was better than some of my photos of you.”  
  
“You can’t possibly have any that are worse than that one.”  
  
“Do too! I’ll prove it,” and with a quick scurry of a jump that had Eiri scrambling to protect certain body parts, Shuichi leapt from his seat on the author's lap and scampered out the door.  
  
A baffled Eiri, who never could quite get the hang of Shuichi’s odd behavior, was left wondering whether he ought to follow or just get up and leave. Before he had the chance to get the hell out of there, though, the boy came bouncing back into the room and plopped back down in his lap in a manner that once again had Eiri scrambling to protect himself.  
  
“What is wrong with you?!” Eiri demanded.  
  
“ _This_ ,” Shuichi said, indicating the shoebox he was holding.  
  
“A pair of sneakers?” Eiri questioned, completely at a loss, and not for the first time either.  
  
“No. Look inside.”  
  
Eiri let out a heavy sigh. He hoped that he'd have better luck at opening boxes than Pandora had and cautiously peeked inside, curious to see what the contents might be.  
  
“These… these are pictures of me,” he stated when he finally beheld the contents of the box.  
  
“Exactly.”  
  
“Shuichi, I can’t tell what it is you’re getting at. How about dropping me a hint?”  
  
“Look at them!”  
  
"O...kay." Eiri began to rifle through the stack of photographs. The pile consisted of everything from candid Polaroids to tabloid magazine covers. He discovered old publicity shots that had been taken to promote his novels and dust cover jackets from every single one of his books. He even found one of the  _purikura_  they took on their first date buried in the mix.  
  
“Y’know, brat, if I had known you were the creepy stalker type I might not have ever let you move in with me.”   
  
“I am not the creepy stalker type! I didn't start collecting these until after I started living with you.”  
  
“If you say so, but I don’t see how these are any worse than the one I deleted.”  
  
“Because at least in the one you deleted you didn’t look like some sort of robot. The only emotion you show in any of these is the occasional mild annoyance or possibly extreme boredom.”   
  
“That’s not true.”  
  
“Is too.”  
  
“How about this one?” Eiri asked, indicating one of the few shots of both of them that had been taken by paparazzi. [1]  
  
“I want you to be  _happy_  in the picture. You almost scared that guy into shitting himself.”  
  
“Hey, in my defense, all I wanted to do was buy some damn groceries, and he probably wouldn’t have noticed us if you hadn’t been making such a scene.  
  
"I was not making a scene!"  
  
"You always make a scene and I had to literally drag you out of there because you kept trying to pose for more pictures."   
  
"But posing for pictures is fun."  
  
"No, it's not. If it didn't sell twice as many copies, I wouldn't allow my publishing company to print my photo along with my bio in my novels."  
  
"Aww, there has to be at least one picture in here you like. How about this one?"  
  
Shuichi held up a recent photo he had taken. It featured a very annoyed-looking Eiri trying to hold up a very wiggly Shuichi who was riding him piggyback while grinning like an idiot and holding the camera at arm's length to snap the picture.[2]  
  
It was surprising how well-focused it was and how much of the two of them fit in the shot considering the close range at which it had been taken. Eiri could even make out part of the stupid 'peace' sign he was making in the bottom corner.  
  
"I still can't believe you talked me into that," Eiri groaned.  
  
"Oh? But it turned out so cute! I told you it would."  
  
"Pft," Eiri scoffed and rolled his eyes. He still thought that it had been a terrible idea. He looked at the photograph again and swore it was mocking him.  
  
How had he let Shuichi convince him to do that?  
  
Oh, yeah,  _that's_  how.  
  
One of these days he would really have to stop letting his little head think instead of his big head. You'd think eventually Eiri would have built up some sort of resistance to Shuichi's manipulations, but instead he found himself caving in with greater and greater frequency.   
  
"Cute, my ass. That picture is the worst one of the lot," he grumbled.  
  
"Hmph," Shuichi grunted. "Then which one is your favorite?"  
  
"They all suck."  
  
"Well, which one sucks the least?"  
  
"Hmn..." Eiri began to rummage carefully through the stack of photos and magazine clippings until he came across one he didn't entirely hate. "I'm kind of fond of this one."  
  
"Oooh... lemme see."   
  
Eiri handed it over to Shuichi as he requested and watched with amusement as the kid's face fell.  
  
"Yuki! That's mean!"  
  
"Blame your friend Hiro."  
  
“He might have taken the picture, but he didn’t tell you to shove the ice cream in my face!”[3]  
  
Eiri took a second look at the picture and the memories of that day washed over him. As sketchy as his memory could be at times, it was something he didn’t think he’d ever be able to forget.  
  
It had been an accident, or at least that was the story Eiri was sticking to. It wasn’t his fault Shuichi’s bandmate surprised him by popping up out of nowhere. Shuichi had been so pissed off after he recovered from the shock of having cold ice cream hit him, and Eiri was so embarrassed by the whole thing, that he had taken off and headed home.   
  
Alone.  
  
And it wasn’t until sometime later, when the irate singer was delivered to his doorstep by his psychotic manager, that Eiri was finally able to relieve his frustration after their heated argument turned in to a passionate round of ‘making up.’  
  
Just thinking back on it was enough to get Eiri heated up and it didn’t help that Shuichi’s plush little tushie was currently squirming around in his lap.  
  
“Shuichi, what are you…” he began to ask when the boy’s fidgeting woke him from his pleasant daydreams.  
  
_Flash!_  
  
“Argh! What the hell?!” Eiri shouted and sprang up from his chair, pushing Shuichi off of his lap and causing him to collide with the ground with a resounding ‘thud.’  
  
“Ouch!” Shuichi exclaimed, then immediately broke into a fit of sniffling and tearful sobbing.  
  
Damn. Eiri hadn’t meant to hurt him.  
  
“Are you alright?” he asked as he knelt beside the boy, his face etched with what only those who knew him well would recognize as concern.   
  
“No, I’m not alright!” Shuichi wailed as he sat up and began to collect the photos that had scattered on the floor when he dropped the box as he fell. “Damnit! I came  _this_  close to getting my picture of you, but you had to go and ruin it all.”  
  
Eiri rolled his eyes at Shuichi’s melodramatics. At least Shuichi hadn’t suffered any physical damage. As for the mental damage, it was pre-existing and there wasn’t anything Eiri could do about that.  
  
“Is this really that important to you?”  
  
“Of course it is!” Shuichi declared, challenging Eiri with his most determined expression. “You know how much I love you, so of course it’s important that I have at least _one_ picture of you being happy while we’ve been together.”  
  
“Fine. Hand over the camera.”  
  
“Huh?’  
  
“Just give me the camera, will you?”  
  
At first Shuichi was a little suspicious and instinctively clutched the camera closer, but Eiri kept holding his hand out insistently until Shuichi reluctantly placed the camera in his open palm.  
  
Eiri closed his fingers around the device, then scooped Shuichi off his spot on the floor and with a little effort lifted him up and sat him on the edge of the desk.  
  
“Huh? Yuki?” was about all the confused kid could manage to say as his enigmatic lover proceeded to lean in to wrap one arm around his shoulders and held up the camera facing toward them with his free hand.  
  
“Smile, Shuichi,” Eiri whispered.  
  
_Click._  
  
Shuichi blinked to clear his vision and also tried, unsuccessfully, to clear his mind of its confusion due to the author’s unexpected stunt.   
  
“There,” Eiri said and tossed the camera to Shuichi, who still hadn’t quite recovered from his shock and fumbled to catch it. “Are you happy now?”  
  
“Yuki, you… you…” Shuichi’s face nearly split in two from his wide grin. He couldn’t believe it. Had  _the_  Eiri Yuki, the same Eiri Yuki who was always in a state of perpetual grumpiness, actually smiled? Just for him? Shuichi nearly dropped the camera in his excitement as he opened up the menu to view the picture, but his glee quickly evaporated once he did.  
  
“What’s wrong?” Eiri asked when he saw the kid’s joyous expression instantly vanish.  
  
“It doesn’t count!”  
  
“What? I thought you wanted me to smile, and I did, so what’s wrong with it?”  
  
“You’re faking it.”  
  
“I don’t believe this,” Eiri growled. “I go through all that trouble to make you happy, and I get accused of not being genuine?”  
  
“Well, were you? Besides, you can’t take a picture of me after I’ve been crying, you asshole. I look like shit.”  
  
“Damn it, I can’t ever satisfy you, can I?”  
  
“That’s not true! I-”  
  
“Okay, you’re right. There is  _one_  way to satisfy you.”  
  
“Yuki!” Shuichi gasped, somehow surprised by Eiri’s crudeness. “You… you… You jerk!”  
  
Shuichi leapt off the desk and stood in front of Eiri.  
  
“Just you wait,” he said, waving the camera in the taller man’s face. “I’m going to get a good picture of you if it’s the last thing I do.”   
  
“Hmph.” Eiri grunted and defiantly crossed his arms over his chest. “Not going to happen. Give it up already.”  
  
“Never!” Shuichi shouted and ran out of the room, pausing only to slam the door behind him.  
  
Eiri shrugged and plopped back onto his office chair. The damn punk was upset with him now, but what else was new? He scanned his desktop for his lighter and pack of cigarettes and quickly set out to smoke away his irritation.  
  
So Shuichi was angry. Big deal. He would go cry about it for awhile and then forget about it entirely.  
  
Eiri put out his cigarette and went back to work.  
  
In hindsight, he should have known how Shuichi would react to being told to give up. After all, was he not a chart-topping artist even though Eiri had told him countless times that his lyrics were no good? And how many times had Eiri tried to get the boy to give up on him only to find himself years later still living with his annoying common-law chimp?  
  
Yes, Eiri really should have realized that the more opposition Shuichi encountered, the harder he worked to overcome it.  
  
But somehow the poor bastard never saw it coming…  
  
To be continued...  
  
  
……..........  
  
  
  
[1] - [3]- These are based on actual illustrations from Gravitation.  
  
[1]

 

  
[2] 

  
  
[3] 

  
  
purikura: short for print club. The photo sticker Eiri and Shuichi took on their first date.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed this latest tale of mine. My first multi-chaptered fic, yay! I originally wrote this as a one shot, but it got a little lengthy, so I split it into three bits. I hope you stick with me for the next two chapters, as I promise it gets much better, and y’all know Shuichi is gonna drive Eiri batty before he even thinks about giving up.
> 
> In the next chapter: Shuichi sets a plan in motion and Eiri gets his just desserts.
> 
> Thank you very much for reading, and please comment below ^_^


	2. Enter the Paparazzo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuichi launches his plan to get the perfect picture of Eiri, and Eiri gets his just desserts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks once again to lawless for betaing.

The next day Eiri felt assured that everything had returned to normal. At first he had been a little on edge, anticipating Shuichi would do something idiotic at any moment, but Shuichi was no more peculiar than normal, and after coming home from blowing off steam, was back to being his usual energetic, cheery self. Relieved that Shuichi had let the whole thing go, Eiri let himself relax and went about his life.  
  
It wasn't until late in the afternoon when Shuichi showed his true colors.   
  
Eiri had just finished doing some laundry and was carrying a basket full of clean folded clothes to the bedroom to put them away when Shuichi suddenly leapt into his path from out of nowhere brandishing that damn camera.  
  
Eiri was so shocked that he dropped the basket and all the clothes tumbled onto the floor. He glared at Shuichi, then stared down at the mess, and for once in his life Shuichi was lucky he at least had enough common sense to get the hell out of there before his enraged boyfriend could lay his hands on him.   
  
Still, it would have been nice if Eiri had told him that the seat of his favorite pair of jeans had been cut out before Hiro came to pick him up for work the next morning.  
  
After that, Eiri was a little more suspicious around the boy. Shuichi apologized for ruining the laundry and leaving Eiri to pick it up by himself, and of course Eiri made sure that Shuichi more than made up for it that night, but after his latest stunt he wasn’t about to trust Shuichi so easily and confiscated the camera from him.  
  
Shuichi threw a fit, but Eiri shrugged off his protests and went about the rest of his day while Shuichi ran off to hide in a corner of the apartment to mope.  
  
Eiri should have realized that Shuichi had been quiet for too long and taken it as a warning sign, but he was far too relieved that the pesky brat had stopped pestering him while he was making dinner. He did briefly wonder what Shuichi was up to, but decided not to seek him out. The last thing he needed was Shuichi offering to help him cook. Taking care of cuts and burns was not a favorite pastime of his, even if he had become very good at it thanks to certain klutz.  
  
Eiri leaned in to smell his creation as he stirred the pot one last time and then sampled the dish.  
  
Perfect.  
  
Shuichi loved sukiyaki, and although he would never let on, Eiri loved pleasing the adorable imp. Maybe the brat didn’t deserve to be spoiled so much after making such an irritating pest of himself, but Eiri hoped that treating him to one of his favorite dishes would cheer the boy up so he would stop sulking and mourning the loss of his stupid camera.  
  
Eiri shook his head at the thought of Shuichi’s overdramatic reaction. Really, it had been Shuichi’s own fault that Eiri had taken the damn thing away. What right did he have to play on Eiri’s guilt by acting like a kicked puppy?  
  
Eiri turned the burner down to low and began setting the table. Normally he would use an electric skillet to cook sukiyaki right at the table. In fact, Eiri suspected that the reason Shuichi liked sukiyaki so much was because he got to watch him cook it and could help out as well, but that was hardly an option seeing as how Shuichi had busted the piece of crap skillet the last time they had used it.  
  
Okay, Eiri conceded, maybe it hadn’t been  _entirely_  Shuichi’s fault. He should have known better than to use sarcasm while instructing the idiot, but at least the resulting fire hadn’t been too difficult to put out, and to his credit, Eiri stopped yelling once the smoke alarm stopped screeching and stopped needling Shuichi about the damage as soon as they replaced the table and had the ceiling painted.  
  
At least cooking it on the stove gave Eiri a chance to surprise him.  
  
Where was he, by the way? It wasn’t odd for Shuichi to mope about when upset, but it was unusual for him to remain quiet for so long.  
  
Eiri felt an inkling of concern, but it disappeared as quickly as it had come. He was certain Shuichi would show up as soon as the food was ready. His timing for such things was impeccable.  
  
Eiri was quite pleased with himself and started to unconsciously hum a tune as he strolled back into the kitchen. He grabbed a couple of hot pads, turned off the stove, picked up the pot, turned around to take it to the table so he could call Shuichi to dinner, and instantly collided with the pink-haired menace.  
  
“Ack!” Eiri shouted in surprise as he tripped and fell forward. It was all he could do to let go of the pot so he wouldn’t land on it and it went sailing across the room and hit the floor with a loud clang and a big splash as all of its contents went spilling out of it. Eiri himself hit the ground with only a soft thud, his fall cushioned by the J-pop rockstar he’d landed on top of.  
  
“Shit!” Eiri immediately rolled off of Shuichi, worried he might have accidentally crushed him. “You okay?” he asked, trying to keep the edge of concern out of his voice.  
  
"Ungh…” Shuichi groaned and rolled on to his side, curling up defensively into a little ball.  
  
A wave of panic washed over Eiri. His cynical mind kept picturing worst case scenarios. Could Shuichi have broken something? Or been burnt by the pot when they ran into each other? The dark thoughts kept swirling around in his head and he had halfway written Shuichi off as being a tragic character like one of the heroines from his novels when the thought occurred that he might actually want to check on Shuichi before making arrangements for his funeral.  
  
“Shuichi?” Odd. Since when did his voice sound so shaky? He quickly schooled his voice in to his usual indifferent monotone. “Are you hurt?”  
  
Eiri reached out and gently placed his hand on Shuichi’s shoulder.   
  
“NO! No, I’m fine. Really.” Shuichi quickly replied and rolled over a little more so he could tuck his legs underneath him and push himself up with one hand into a seated position. “See? Never been better.”  
  
“Is something wrong with your hand?” Eiri asked, observing how Shuichi held it close to his body in an attempt to hide it.  
  
“Huh? No, it’s nothing.”  
  
“Let me see.”  
  
Shuichi’s eyes widened and he recoiled a bit, withdrawing from Eiri and clutching his hand even closer to his chest. Eiri furrowed his brow at the unusual behavior. Normally Shuichi would beg for him to kiss his boo-boos better, and he couldn’t understand why Shuichi wouldn’t want him to check it out this time.  
  
Unless he was actually hurt.  
  
“Let. Me. See.” Eiri repeated, this time a little more firmly.  
  
“Uh… that’s okay…” Shuichi stammered.  
  
Eiri growled impatiently. He was trying to be nice and was being rewarded for his efforts with evasiveness! It was a bit more than he could handle, so instead of bothering to ask for a third time, he reached out and grabbed Shuichi’s arm to pull it away from him so he could examine it.  
  
Shuichi yelped and Eiri nearly let go, worried he might have made things worse, but held tight when it became clear that Shuichi had only been surprised.  
  
Shuichi started to squirm and tried to pull away but Eiri managed to keep his grip despite Shuichi’s struggles. After all, it wasn’t like he didn’t have plenty of practice. In short time, Shuichi realized that Eiri wasn’t going to let go and gave up resisting.  
  
Finally!  
  
Eiri looked down at Shuichi’s hand as soon as he stopped his writhing.  
  
What the…? It looked like he was holding something.  
  
Eiri slowly looked up from Shuichi’s hand to his face, and noted the careful way in which Shuichi avoided eye contact. Slowly, he looked back down at Shuichi’s hand to watch as the fingers unfurled to reveal…  
  
Another fucking digital camera.  
  
So  _that_  was what Shuichi was hiding. Eiri felt like a complete fool for worrying himself sick when Shuichi had been just fine, and the only reason he had been acting funny was so that Eiri wouldn’t find out he’d been playing paparazzo again.  
  
Eiri almost could have laughed at the irony of the situation if he hadn’t been so pissed off.  
  
He should have known that confiscating the first camera wouldn’t have been enough of a deterrent when Shuichi could simply buy a new one. He was a very successful musician after all, so it wasn’t like money was an issue, but Eiri did wonder when Shuichi had snuck out to get it.  
  
Eiri took a deep breath and tried to calm himself, then looked around to see how much of a mess dropping the pot had caused and had to take another one.  
  
Ungh…  
  
It was e v e r y w h e r e. The pot was lying overturned in the middle of the room and its former contents had spilled all around it, completely covering the floor. As if that wasn’t bad enough, much of the sauce and veggies had splashed high enough to cover the counters, the cabinets, the refrigerator, and even the ceiling. How the hell had it managed to hit the ceiling?  
  
Eiri stood up and without a word turned away from Shuichi and the mess he had caused and stormed out of the room.  
  
“Yuki, where are you going?” Shuichi asked in a state of near panic when he followed Eiri out of the kitchen and found him getting ready to leave the apartment.  
  
“Out.”  
  
“Out where?”  
  
“Out to eat, “ Eiri said as he pulled on a coat and checked his pockets to make sure he had his keys, all the while avoiding eye contact with Shuichi. “Seeing as how my dinner has been ruined, I figured I might as well.”  
  
“What - what about…?” Shuichi stammered, almost too quietly to hear.  
  
“About  _what?_ ” Eiri suddenly turned and faced Shuichi, his eyes narrowed to a fierce glare and his voice took on a dangerous edge. “You? That mess in there?  _You_  are going to stay behind and clean it up, and I swear if I find one drop of it left on the floor by the time I get back, you’re going to find yourself sleeping on the roof tonight!”  
  
Eiri didn’t fail to notice Shuichi flinching at his harsh words, and wondered if he had gone too far, but he was in no state of mind to console the kid, especially when it had been Shuichi’s fault to begin with, so he left Shuichi standing there on the verge of tears while he slammed the door in his wake.  
  
When Eiri finally cooled down enough to return, he stood outside the apartment door hesitating. There was no telling what awaited him on the other side.  
  
Dinner had been good, and he felt much better having had his hunger sated, but the experience was soured by the lack of company. He had tried to enjoy himself in spite of the fact that he was lonely (if he was honest with himself) by flirting with the waitress, but without Shuichi there to get angry and jealous it just wasn’t as much fun.  
  
Damn brat. Did he have to affect every part of his life?  
  
Eiri sighed. He knew he couldn’t delay the inevitable forever and entered his home to deal with the aftermath.  
  
The place was dark. Eiri turned on a light to chase away the eerie emptiness of it but that only called attention to the deafening silence.  
  
“I’m home,” he called, more out of habit than anything else.  
  
No answer.  
  
Eiri removed his coat, and after hanging it in his spot in the closet, stepped out of his shoes and placed them next to Shuichi’s. Hmm… so it looked like Shuichi was still there, but where?  
  
Eiri drifted specter-like through the seemingly desolate space and made his way to the kitchen, not sure what to expect.  
  
It was spotless. Spotless, and orderly, and perfect.  
  
And empty.  
  
It was as if nothing had happened. Like the vibrant and joyous creature known as Shuichi had never entered such a sterile, lifeless place.  
  
The thought made the author’s stomach knot, and he backed out of the room, not fully willing to believe that the idea of returning to his life before he had met Shuichi could cause such a visceral reaction.  
  
Unless Shuichi was wandering around Tokyo barefoot, and even Eiri didn’t think he was foolish enough for that, there was only one place left for him to be. Eiri headed for the bedroom.  
  
Once he got there he paused for the second time that night at a closed door. No light was visible through the crack at the bottom. Eiri strained to listen for any sounds on the other side of the door but failed to make any out. At least he didn’t hear any crying. It wasn’t unusual for Shuichi to generate enough noise to wake half the building when he was upset. Eiri sometimes wondered if disgruntled neighbors were behind all the “Shuichi Shindou: Victim of Domestic Abuse?” headlines he occasionally saw on the covers of tabloid rags at store checkout lines.   
  
Shuichi was probably asleep. Eiri opened the door and entered the room. His eyes scanned the darkened space that was illuminated just enough by the pale city lights that filtered in from the windows to allow him to see.   
  
What he did see must have been an illusion. He flipped the light on to see if it would chase away the impossible mirage, but it refused to dissipate and he stood blinking in disbelief.  
  
“Welcome home, Yuki.” Shuichi was lying in bed on his stomach, completely nude except for the silk sheets that were tangled around his legs and draped across his waist. His pert, gorgeous round ass stuck up in the air, propped up by a pillow underneath his hips and three other things were laying on the bed next to him: a small bowl of strawberries, a can of whipped cream, and a vial of flavored ‘massage’ oil.  
  
“How was dinner? I, uh… thought you might be in the mood for some dessert,” Shuichi murmured shyly. It was evident that he was beginning to feel self-conscious and the longer Eiri stood ogling him, the redder he became. The strange silence stretched on for what felt like an eternity, though it didn’t take long for Shuichi’s blush to match the brilliant crimson sheets he was spread out on.  
  
Eventually time began to crawl forward again, and Eiri broke their stalemate by advancing toward Shuichi and sitting in front of him on the end of the bed. Shuichi pushed himself up into a kneeling position, pulling the bowl of strawberries into his lap as he did so.  
  
Eiri almost had to laugh at Shuichi’s silly attempt at modesty. The boy could be so completely wanton when he wanted to be, hell, onstage he was sex incarnate, but there were still times when he blushed over small gestures, and even though he initiated much of their sex play, there were still times he was timid about it. The paradox kept Eiri infinitely intrigued.  
  
“I, uh, um…” Shuichi so eloquently tripped over his own words, and Eiri put his fingers over the boy’s lips to silence him before he could ruin the romantic interlude.   
  
As soon as Shuichi stopped babbling nonsense, Eiri removed his fingers, then leaned in to kiss to him. It was not a lingering kiss, more teasing than anything else, and when Eiri pulled away his eyes traveled down his lover’s nude form to rest momentarily on the bowl of strawberries in his lap before making their way back up to meet Shuichi’s with a lustful stare.  
  
Shuichi understood Eiri’s wordless request and lifted up one of the strawberries for Eiri to eat. Eiri couldn’t help but note that the stems had already been cut off and checked to make sure Shuichi still had all ten of his fingers. Once he was assured that his lover was still in one piece, Eiri leaned in and devoured the sweet fruit that Shuichi held up for him, sensuously licking the juice that ran down his fingers, then suggestively taking those fingers into his mouth and sucking on them.   
  
Eiri reveled in the way that small shivers ran down Shuichi’s body. Shuichi never did seem to run out of surprises, no matter how long they had been together. J-pop tart was Eiri’s absolute favorite thing to eat and he made sure he spent the whole night thoroughly savoring the sweet dessert.   
  
  
  
  
Still feeling wonderfully sated when he groggily awoke in the morning, Eiri sat up, yawned, and languidly stretched while rubbing his tired eyes. He blinked sleepily and ran one hand though his unruly bed head, glancing to his side to find his lover.  
  
Where was the brat?  
  
An annoying drone from a hair dryer sounded from the bathroom and Eiri realized that he must have woken up to the sound of Shuichi getting ready for work. He heard a clatter when the machine was turned off, presumably because the kid haphazardly tossed it into the drawer it was kept in, and a couple of minutes later, Shuichi came marching back into the bedroom whistling a cheery tune.  
  
Fully clothed.  
  
Damn. Eiri had been hoping to catch a glimpse of him fresh out of the shower.  
  
“Oh! You up already?” Shuichi’s whistling ceased when he noticed Eiri was awake.  
  
“Nngh…” Eiri was always so articulate in the morning. “Not yet, but I’m sure you can help me with that.”  
  
Shuichi grinned at Eiri’s lewd suggestion, walked over to the bed where Eiri was sitting, and climbed on to the mattress and leaned over Eiri to give him a kiss. Things quickly started to turn passionate, but as soon as Shuichi felt Eiri’s hands begin to roam up his shirt and caress his ass he abruptly pulled away.  
  
“Can’t,” Shuichi said, shaking his head emphatically. “I have to be in the studio by ten or K’s gonna shoot me.”  
  
“Aren’t you ever the dedicated career man, you big tease.”  
  
Shuichi frowned, then pouted, then stuck his tongue out at Eiri before hopping off the bed. He turned to walk away and Eiri took the opportunity to playfully spank his bottom.  
  
“Hey!” Shuichi yelped and spun around to face Eiri. “What was that for?  
  
“For waking me up for no good reason.”  
  
“You were already awake when I came in here!”  
  
“Yeah, because all your noise woke me up.”  
  
“Impossible. You sleep so deeply that you wouldn’t wake up if Godzilla were fighting Rodan right outside our building. How could I possibly be loud enough to wake you?”  
  
“Because you’re loud enough to wake anyone up. If you don’t believe me, ask the neighbors. They’ll agree.”  
  
“Yuki!” Shuichi exclaimed indignantly. “That’s all  _your_  fault!”  
  
“ _My_  fault?” Eiri raised a skeptical brow. “That you lack any sort of self-control? I think not. I’ve tried over and over to teach it to you.”  
  
“Jerk.” It was clear to Shuichi that he wasn’t going to win this round so he decided not to dig his own grave any deeper.  
  
“What did you come in here for anyway?” Eiri asked. “You look like you’re ready to leave already.”  
  
“I am,” Shuichi said as he walked over to the dresser and started digging through the contents of the top drawer, “but I forgot something.”  
  
“What?” Eiri asked as Shuichi continued to rummage through the underwear drawer. It had previously belonged to Eiri alone, but why should it remain sacred while Shuichi’s stuff invaded and crowded every other part of what was once an organized, clean, and empty existence?  
  
Eiri was just glad that he’d been able to convince Shuichi to stop buying matching pairs of underwear for the two of them. It was very awkward to accidentally put on such uncomfortably snug underwear.  
  
“I hope you’re not taking a pair of my undies for ‘luck’ again. I’ve told you, that’s creepy.”   
  
“No, I’m not,” Shuichi assured Eiri.  
  
“Then what are you looking for?”  
  
“This!” Shuichi proclaimed triumphantly as he found what he had been searching for.  
  
“See you later. I’m off,” Shuichi chirped gleefully, and began to trot out the room in that overly exuberant manner of his.  
  
“Wait.” Eiri couldn’t help but let his curiosity get the better of him, and stopped Shuichi before he reached the door.  
  
“Hmn?” Shuichi halted and turned to face Eiri.  
  
“What do you have there?”  
  
“Nothing much,” Shuichi replied then lifted it up for Eiri to see. “Just this.”  
  
Eiri’s eyes widened in disbelief. Not again. How could this be?  
  
“Smile!” Shuichi laughed and clicked the button on his camera.  
  
“Yrgh…” Eiri growled and hurled his pillow at Shuichi, but Shuichi dodged through the doorway, and the pillow thudded harmlessly against the wall, then fell softly to the floor.  
  
“Bye, Yuki, love you.” Shuichi stuck his head back into the room and enthusiastically waved goodbye before running out the apartment, giggling madly as he went.  
  
Frustrated, Eiri flopped back down and sank into the mattress.  
  
Damn tenacious brat! Eiri couldn’t believe Shuichi still hadn’t given up by now. _Especially_ after last night. Normally a night like that one meant that their argument was over. That Shuichi still pursued his goal of getting his picture made Eiri think he was being strung along.  
  
The idea left a foul taste in his mouth.  _He_  was supposed to be the one in control. Hell, when he met Shuichi, the boy had been naive to the point of absurdity. It was ridiculous to think that now he was some sort of manipulative mastermind, but Eiri supposed that not even the once sweet and innocent Shuichi was entirely incorruptible.  
  
If that was how Shuichi wanted to play it, Eiri was game. The only problem was that Shuichi had the advantage of making up the rules as he went along.  
  
Perhaps the most aggravating thing was that when Shuichi came home he acted as though nothing at all had happened. He was completely normal, which was far from normal for him.  
  
The whole thing put Eiri on edge. Waiting for Shuichi to do something was maddening, but when he confronted him about it he was so apologetic that it completely deflated Eiri’s anger.  
  
All he could do was wait for Shuichi to make the first move.   
  
And move he did…   
  
To be continued...  
  
  
............  
  
  
Sukiyaki: A dish made up of thinly sliced beef, and vegetables simmered in sukiyaki sauce. It is usually cooked at the table and eaten out of the pan by everyone. Delicious! For a recipe and more info check out:   
  
[This site](http://japanesefood.about.com/od/beef/r/beefsukiyaki.htm)  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooray! Second chapter! I hope you all enjoyed and I hope y'all didn't think Shuichi would give up that easily. No, Eiri's not about to be let off the hook so easily. Sorry if you found this chapter to be a little teasing. There is still plenty of good stuff left in the next chapter, so please stick around.
> 
> In the exciting conclusion: Eiri finally snaps and the pressure builds until it reaches a climax ^_~
> 
> Please, feed the muse; comment below.


	3. If at First…

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eiri finds himself at his wits end from being constantly stalked by Shuichi, and we find out why Shuichi is so determined to win his photo of Eiri.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are at our final chapter...
> 
> Thanks for sticking with me so far, I hope you enjoy the surely riveting conclusion ^_~ b
> 
> Fair warning: tooth-rotting levels of saccharine sweetness ahead.
> 
> (also a final thanks to Lawless for helping me polish this up to shine the best it could.)

In the days that followed Eiri couldn’t turn a corner without finding Shuichi around the bend. He would always shout at the kid and Shuichi would vanish, only to return sometime later pretending nothing had ever happened.  
  
Those guerrilla tactics really wore on Eiri’s frazzled nerves. How had someone who was normally about as subtle as a giant panda robot suddenly become a stealthy super ninja?  
  
One minute he was nowhere to be seen or heard and the next he was popping out of nowhere, camera in hand. He was _everywhere_. Eiri couldn’t even step out of the bathroom without being bombarded. Save for when he barricaded himself in his office, Eiri couldn’t escape his new personal paparazzo.  
  
He tried changing the locks while Shuichi was at NG one day but guilt, and a threat of eviction if he couldn’t get his ‘pet’ to stop wailing on his doorstep, made him cave in by giving Shuichi brand new keys the next day.  
  
Apparently Shuichi’s single-minded obsession was beginning to affect him at work as well. Eiri’s answering machine was flooded with pleas and cries and threats of “Why don’t you just let Shuichi have his picture already?”, “Please, I can’t stand one more day of Shindou-san’s whining”, and “If this goes on much longer, you’re going to find yourself staring down the business end of my magnum!” from Hiroshi, Suguru, and K, respectively.  
  
One afternoon when a bit of writer’s block, and the fact that he had run completely out of food, sent Eiri outside to clear his mind and stock up on provisions, Eiri found himself being stalked by Shuichi and his cohorts. Great. It wasn’t bad enough that Eiri had to deal with Shuichi at home, now he had to deal with the Moron Rangers as well.  
  
Shuichi even had the nerve to sneak the camera into the bedroom and use it while they were in the middle of ‘it.’ Eiri, outraged, tried to delete the shot, but Shuichi pleaded with Eiri to let him keep it. He promised he would never, _ever_ show it to anybody and only wanted it for ‘personal’ use.  
  
Eiri knew he was falling into a trap, but how could he resist Shuichi’s begging? Besides, he made sure Shuichi paid him dearly for it and wore a self-satisfied smirk when Shuichi walked kind of funny the next day.  
  
Not that it mattered, Their truce was temporary and Shuichi was back to troubling Eiri in no time.   
  
By the end of the week, Eiri was so jumpy that he made that nervous freak Sakano look like the picture of calm, cool collectedness.  
  
He couldn’t take it anymore!  
  
When he woke up after yet another night of being seduced out of confronting Shuichi about his latest round of insufferable idiocy, he was relieved to discover that Shuichi had already left for the day. Now he had time to prepare. As soon as Shuichi came home he would finally put a stop to this. No more distractions! Even if Shuichi came home wearing nothing but a leather harness and a sign that said “free pony rides”, Eiri wouldn’t allow himself to lose focus.   
  
He rolled out of bed and grumbled to himself, he felt achy from last night’s wild, passionate lovemaking, and irritated that it had accomplished nothing. Frustrated, he decided to take a shower to calm himself and the hot water running down his body enabled him to relax for the first time in days.   
  
 _‘Why is this picture so damn important to Shuichi anyway?’_  Eiri thought, then remembered an old worn out photograph that he had shared with Shuichi. It had meant so much to him at one time, but he had long since torn and scattered it to the winds.  
  
Eiri reached for his shampoo but found the bottle empty. Damn, if he hadn’t had to avoid Shuichi’s idiot friends the other day he might have remembered to replace it. It looked like he would have to use Shuichi’s.  
  
The sweet scent of Shuichi’s flowery herbal shampoo made Eiri want to gag at first, but as he massaged the lathery suds into his scalp it conjured up fond memories of times spent with the annoying chimp.  
  
The kid’s smile.  
  
And his laughter.  
  
All the times he had presented Eiri with lyrics he’d written in hopes of Eiri giving them his nod of approval.  
  
The sensuous moans he made while being pounded into the mattress.  
  
And those times that Eiri gently held Shuichi close, tucked his head under his chin, and deeply inhaled the sweet scent of his freshly washed hair.  
  
Maybe Eiri could understand why Shuichi wanted his picture after all, but damn it, he had gotten a little carried away.  
  
And ‘a little’ was by far an understatement. Shuichi never did anything by half measures.  
  
Eiri closed his eyes and moved under the spray of the shower to rinse the foamy bubbles out of his hair. He stiffened when he thought he heard a noise, but quickly dismissed it.  
  
 _‘Damn brat is making me paranoid,’_  he thought.  
  
He groped blindly behind him to grab the soap only to accidentally knock it off the tray. Shit! He couldn‘t believe him own clumsiness. Why did he suddenly get a prison movie vibe? He stepped out of the stream of running water and opened his eyes to look for it. He found it lying in the corner and bent over to pick it up.   
  
“Ah-ha!” a familiar cry sounded followed by a loud ‘whoosh’ as the shower curtains were flung open. Coherent thought flew away and all Eiri could manage to do was peek to look behind him right before…  
  
 _Flash!_  
  
The camera went off and Shuichi instantly opened up the menu to view his latest picture.  
  
Had he finally done it? Had he finally captured his perfect shot of Eiri? He wiped off the fog that was clouding the screen to see.  
  
Ooh… not quite, but it was a very nice shot. It wasn’t every day he got to see Eiri from  _that_  angle. Wow, his ass looked exquisite, and the adorable shocked expression on his face was simply priceless.  
  
Shuichi started to drool a little bit over that image when a drop of water landed on the screen and abruptly woke him from his snowballing fantasies.  
  
Funny, he didn’t hear the water running anymore, so what was dripping on him?  
  
He used his shirt sleeve to wipe off the screen once again, then looked up to see where the water had come from and let out a squeaky “Eep!”   
  
Towering over him was one very wet, very angry, very naked Eiri Yuki.  
  
“Give me that!” Eiri snarled.  
  
He lunged for the camera but Shuichi scrambled out of reach.  
  
Oh, shit!  
  
Oh, Shit!!  
  
OH, SHIT!!!  
  
Shuichi had  _really_  managed to piss Eiri off this time. Looking back on it though, he realized he was lucky that Eiri had put up with it for this long.  
  
Shuichi fled the bathroom. He had to escape the apartment.  _Now_.  
  
He made a mad dash through the hallway, grateful he had the foresight to put on his running shoes before trying to ambush Eiri. He heard a flurry of curses behind him but didn’t dare look back. There was also a thundering of footsteps which only ceased for a moment when Eiri slipped in a pool of water and skidded into the wall with a loud crash.  
  
Shuichi screeched to a halt, momentarily concerned for his lover, but Eiri’s increasingly creative threats assured him he was fine so he took off running again. Shuichi did wish that Eiri would leave his synthesizer out of it though. The things Eiri was suggesting sounded not only incredibly painful but also physically impossible.  
  
Shuichi reached the living room shortly and leapt over the L-shaped sectional to get to the other side of the room.  
  
There were only two of them living here; why was this place so big?!   
  
It felt like it took forever to reach the front door, especially knowing that Eiri was in close pursuit. Yay! There was the door, a few more feet and he was free…  
  
Thud!  
  
“Oww!” Shuichi hissed and pulled himself off the ground. He had been running so fast in his adrenaline fueled terror that he was unable to stop in time and crashed into the door blocking his way out.  
  
 _‘Why is this damn door so much stronger than the other ones?’_  Shuichi thought as he frantically tried turning the knob.  _‘And why is this so slippery all of a sudden?’_  
  
Could it have anything to do with his nerves, or how sweaty his palms were?  
  
Nah.  
  
Success! After what felt like an eternity of fumbling with the doorknob, Shuichi was able to open it  
  
Freedom! Hooray!  
  
Shuichi felt relief wash over him as he tried to swing the door open, but it was quickly replaced with dread when he was able to open it no more than a crack before it was suddenly and violently slammed shut.  
  
Shuichi looked to the left and the right and saw Eiri’s hands firmly planted on the door about level with his head. He slowly turned around to face his infuriated lover.  
  
The dumbfounded vocalist tried to think up an excuse, or an apology, or  _anything_  that could help him out of his predicament, but was silenced by Eiri’s basilisk stare.   
  
Damn! He was trapped between Eiri and the closed door, the proverbial rock and hard place.  
  
He had to think of a way out. Fast!  
  
Eiri smirked wickedly, convinced that there was no way his foolish idiot was getting away  _this_  time.  
  
Good thing for Shuichi that a fool’s ingenuity is so easily underestimated.  
  
Shuichi collapsed to the floor, which caused Eiri to stagger back in surprise, and Shuichi seized the opportunity to slip between Eiri’s long legs and make an escape…  
  
Right back to the place he had been running away from.  
  
Crap.  
  
Shuichi reached the living room and ducked behind the couch in an attempt to put something, anything, between Eiri and him.  
  
A second later, Eiri stormed into the room.  
  
“Get out of there!” he demanded.  
  
“Are you mad?” Shuichi asked, peeking his head over the back of the couch.  
  
“You bet I am! Now give me the fucking camera!”  
  
“B-but, what are you going to do with it?” Shuichi whimpered, clutching the precious item protectively against his chest.  
  
“I’m gonna delete every picture on it and shove it up your ass!”   
  
“NO! Yuki, be reasonable!”  
  
“Reasonable?” If Eiri hadn’t already snapped, Shuichi was sure he would have done so then. “Reasonable?! You’ve been stalking me in my own house for over a week and you want  _me_  to be  _‘reasonable’?!_ ”  
  
Shuichi could practically see the smoke coming out of Eiri’s ears.  
  
“How the hell can you expect that?” Eiri continued ranting. “You’ve driven me to the brink of insanity-- which you should have known would be a  _very_  short trip!”   
  
“Wah!” Shuichi cried. “I’m really sorry! I didn’t mean to make you so mad.”  
  
“Sorry? Not gonna cut it this time! I’m sick of accepting your apologies only to have you turn around and do the same old shit.”  
  
“But- but- but-” Shuichi had seen Eiri angry many times before and it was always terrifying, but couldn’t remember ever seeing him in such a state of blind rage.  
  
Shuichi tried to sneak around the couch so he could make another break for the door, as he still believed that his best bet was to allow Eiri some time to cool off, but Eiri easily blocked his path.  
  
Eiri made a mad grab for Shuichi and managed to grasp his hooded sweatshirt, but all Shuichi had to do to release himself from imprisonment was lift his arms over his head and slip right out of the oversized garment.  
  
“Grr…“ Eiri growled as his prey eluded him. He leapt forward to try to nab him again.  
  
“AH!” Shuichi miraculously managed to scramble out of reach.   
  
He started to circle the couch, leading Eiri in a most annoying game of ‘ring around the rosy’ in a desperate effort to stay one step ahead of him. He almost pushed himself to the brink of exhaustion in the chase and wondered which would wear out first, him or the floor. He slowed down when he finally put the couch between him and Eiri and suddenly realized he had made it to the other side.  
  
Now the couch was between them and there was nothing between him and the door.  
  
All right!  
  
All he had to do was beat Eiri to the door and he’d be free.  
  
Or so Shuichi thought until Eiri realized what he was planning and easily hopped over the couch to land in front of Shuichi, blocking his only hope of escape.  
  
Shuichi tumbled backward in surprise and would have hurt himself if he hadn’t landed on the soft cushions of the couch.  
  
Eiri saw his opening and pounced, but Shuichi recovered quickly and rolled out from underneath him to make another run for it.  
  
His mind was occupied solely with survival and didn’t notice until too late that he’d run back down the hall.  
  
He was trapped.  
  
Eiri followed right behind him, leaving only one place to go.  
  
Shuichi ran blindly in his panic. He reached the end of the hallway and without any other option hastily opened the door and jumped through.  
  
Into the bedroom.  
  
He slammed the door and turned the lock, hoping to stall Eiri for at least a little while.  
  
 _Bam! Bam! Bam!_  
  
“Open the door!” Eiri shouted furiously, pounding on the door to emphasize his point.  
  
“But…” Shuichi’s fear-stricken mind struggled to think up a plan.  
  
Well, he was in the bedroom…  
  
No!  
  
 _‘That won’t work, you idiot! You’ve already tried to seduce Yuki too many times.’_  
  
Eiri suddenly kicked in the door and stood fuming on the other side of the threshold.  
  
For someone who sat on his ass typing all day, it was amazing that when enraged Eiri could possess a strength that would make Bruce Banner turn green with envy. Shuichi would have been impressed if he wasn’t so busy being scared shitless.  
  
Eiri advanced closer to Shuichi, who was huddled on the bed quaking, and took a deep breath, visibly trying to calm himself.  
  
“Give me the camera,” Eiri ordered, reaching out his hand, palm up, as soon as he stood in front of Shuichi.  
  
“NO!” Shuichi had come too far to give up now.  
  
“I’m not playing games,” Eiri warned. “Give me the damn camera.”  
  
“Nuh-uh,” Shuichi protested.  
  
“That’s it!” Eiri roared. He was obviously exasperated beyond the point of being able to take any more.  
  
He reached out to forcibly take the camera away from Shuichi, but Shuichi tucked himself in to a defensive ball. Eiri tried to reach in and pull the camera away but yelped and recoiled when he felt a sharp pain jolt through his fingers.  
  
“You bit me,” Eiri stated incredulously.  
  
“And I’ll do it again!” Shuichi boldly declared, un-tucking his head from the rest of his body which was still curled up like a frightened armadillo to challenge Eiri with a determined glare.  
  
“Go ahead, but you’ll be the one who’s sorry when I won’t be able to prep you anymore.”  
  
“You’ll still have your other hand.”  
  
Shuichi met Eiri’s narrowing eyes without flinching but shuddered and gulped when Eiri’s expression morphed into a mischievous grin.  
  
Switching tactics, Eiri pounced again. Instead of trying to steal the camera, Eiri ran his hands up Shuichi’s sides and began wiggling his fingers.  
  
“Yuki!…St-stop!” Shuichi gasped between riotous fits of giggles and squeals. “It- it tickles!”  
  
“Ready to give up yet?” Eiri continued mercilessly tickling Shuichi, who was trying his best to keep his death grip on his camera.  
  
“Never!”  
  
Unable to reach under Shuichi’s arms or his neck and collarbone areas where he was most vulnerable, Eiri pressed Shuichi flat to the mattress and swung his leg over Shuichi’s prone body and straddled him facing toward Shuichi’s feet.   
  
“Mmph… You’re heavy.” Shuichi whined and Eiri scooted forward to sit on Shuichi’s thighs, right behind the bend of his knees, then grabbed Shuichi’s lower legs.   
  
“Not that!” Shuichi begged as Eiri firmly held both his legs with one arm and used his free hand to remove the shoes Shuichi was still wearing.  
  
Eiri gently peeled of Shuichi’s socks while Shuichi continued to squirm underneath him.  
  
“No, please, Yuki! Don’t” Shuichi cried but Eiri ignored his pitiful pleas.  
  
Firmly holding on to both legs so that Shuichi couldn’t kick, Eiri lightly ran his fingernails against the soles of Shuichi’s feet.  
  
“Eeeek!” Shuichi screamed. It was so unfair of Eiri to exploit his weaknesses like this.  
  
“I- I can’t breathe!” Shuichi complained between outbursts of laughter.  
  
Shuichi continued to writhe under Eiri and Eiri was barely able to keep his grip but fortunately he was very accustomed to holding onto a struggling, squirmy, Shuichi.  
  
“Wah!” Shuichi couldn’t take much more. He pulled his arms out from under him and began furiously pounding his fists against the bed. He was starting to reach his limit when Eiri abruptly ceased his tormenting.  
  
“Huh?” Shuichi’s mind went blank when Eiri stopped for no apparent reason and climbed off of him.  
  
He was winning, why would he..?  
  
“Thanks, Shuichi,” Eiri leaned in and whispered into Shuichi’s ear as he reached under his chest.  
  
Shit! The camera!  
  
While struggling, Shuichi had let go of and forgotten about it. He tried to grab it but Eiri already had a hold on it and pulled it out from under him. Shuichi made a desperate plunge for it, but Eiri held it aloft with one hand and kept Shuichi at bay by keeping him at arm’s-length with the other one.  
  
“That’s enough,” Eiri scolded to get Shuichi to stop trying to climb over him to regain the camera and win the absurd game of keep away.  
  
“But…”  
  
“But nothing. I’ve had all I can stand of your childish games. It’s time it ended.”  
  
Shuichi slumped back down, defeated. Despondency quickly enveloped him and the sting of tears started to blur his vision. Lost in his overpowering emotions, Shuichi hung his head, unable to look up at Eiri.  
  
Shuichi heard a small clatter as Eiri set the camera on the nightstand. He was sure Eiri was still furious with him and now he would finally have to face the music.  
  
“Hey,” Eiri whispered, but Shuichi didn’t dare look up at him and continued to stare down at bed sheets.  
  
Eiri gently placed his hand under Shuichi’s chin and tilted his face up. Tears flowed freely down Shuichi’s cheeks and Eiri tenderly wiped them away as he caressed his face.  
  
“Why is this so important to you?” Eiri asked.  
  
“Because…!”  
  
“ _Because?_ ”  
  
Shuichi pulled away from Eiri slightly and held the hand that had been caressing his cheek. He laced his fingers between Eiri’s and stared down at their joined hands.  
  
“Never mind,” Shuichi mumbled, barely loudly enough for Eiri to hear. “It’s stupid. You’ll only make fun of me for it.”  
  
“Probably, but after all the stress you’ve put me through lately, don’t I at least deserve to know why? Why does this mean so much to you? And what on earth made you think you could ‘surprise’ me into smiling? That’s flawed logic even by your standards.”  
  
Shuichi looked up at Eiri’s face. Despite his slightly teasing words, his expression showed no signs of mocking.  
  
“Well,” Shuichi began hesitantly. “It’s just that you… you seem so happy these days.”  
  
Eiri’s eyes widened for a moment in disbelief and Shuichi felt Eiri’s hand squeeze his a little tighter, but Eiri remained silent, so he continued his explanation.  
  
“Believe it or not, I catch glimpses of you smiling all the time. Like the other day, when you were making dinner. I don’t think you’re aware of it, but you kind of get absorbed in what you’re doing and it isn’t unusual for you to hum or start smiling while you work.”  
  
Eiri’s brows knit together in that puzzled thoughtful look that Shuichi found terribly adorable. He was probably wondering if it were true. Shuichi hoped he wouldn't become conscious of it and stop.  
  
“You do it while you do a lot of other household chores too. Like the laundry or the dishes. Even when you’re working. If you’re writing something you like, you kind of get this dreamy, content look on your face, but whenever you catch me looking it always fades.”  
  
Shuichi sighed.  
  
“ I know it was silly of me to keep trying to steal a picture of you, but I thought if you knew I was trying to take one, you wouldn’t smile like I wanted…” Shuichi was silent for a moment but soon he continued, despite having a hard time keeping his voice from cracking.  
  
“I- I guess I just wanted proof that you were happy. That I wasn’t imagining it… that… that…” Shuichi choked down a sob and let go of Eiri’s hand. He had to look away form Eiri’s face. He wiped away the tears that were threatening to spill from his eyes and nervously wrung the hem of his shirt in his hands before quietly making one more confession. “I wanted to pretend that  _I_  make you happy.”  
  
Shuichi withdrew into himself. He was always very open about how he felt about Eiri, but Eiri rarely returned his affection equally openly. Deep down, Shuichi thought he knew what Eiri’s feelings for him were, but Eiri almost never expressed those feelings verbally, and sometimes it filled Shuichi with doubt. It hurt to be so vulnerable when he was never certain his love was reciprocated.  
  
Shuichi kept crying, unable to hold back the flood of emotions, until he felt a pair of strong hands pull him against a warm, comforting chest.  
  
Eiri silently held Shuichi close and Shuichi nuzzled his face against Eiri’s shoulder while Eiri soothingly ran one hand down Shuichi’s back and idly combed through Shuichi’s soft hair with his fingers.  
  
They remained like that, silently holding each other, for what seemed like a blissful eternity, until Eiri finally spoke up and broke the spell with a quiet whisper.  
  
“Shuichi, I… I am happy,” he confessed.  
  
Shuichi pushed himself away from Eiri’s chest enough to look into his eyes and see the sincerity there. He opened his mouth to respond but Eiri silenced him with a small shake of his head.  
  
“I’m happier than I’ve been…since... well, in a long time,” Eiri continued. “And, as aggravating as you can be sometimes, I have you to blame for it. Do you still need proof?”   
  
Shuichi carefully studied Eiri’s face, but could find no signs of anything but sincerity and adoration.  
  
“No,” he replied, wrapping his arms around Eiri’s neck and leaning in for a kiss. “I think I know the truth.”  
  
Eiri pulled Shuichi in for another kiss, which he quickly deepened. The whole world seemed to fade away as Shuichi entered into a dreamlike place of sensation.  
  
It barely registered with Shuichi that he had been flipped on his back and that Eiri hovered over him, running his hands under his shirt and against his skin. At some point he did notice that the garment had been removed as Eiri’s lips found their way down his neck, then chest, then paused briefly as he darted his tongue inside his navel. Shuichi giggled at the ticklish sensation and Eiri playfully nipped him before kissing him even lower down.  
  
Overcome with yearning, Shuichi threaded his fingers through Eiri’s hair while Eiri’s hands confidently worked on removing his pants.  
  
Everything became a sea of foggy pleasure and the last coherent thought Shuichi had as he floated away on it was that maybe he was glad Eiri didn’t always express himself verbally. If he did, Shuichi might miss how he tried to convey his feelings physically…  
  
  
  
The dream did eventually fade, but long after the afterglow had worn off, Shuichi sat up watching Eiri as he slept.  
  
Maybe he gone overboard. Okay, there was no ‘maybe’ about it. Shuichi decided he would stop harassing Eiri so much, but couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed.  
  
He hated to lose and he still wanted his picture of Eiri.  
  
Shuichi looked down at Eiri again, letting warmth and contentment overcome him.  
  
He was so cute!  
  
Eiri always looked so relaxed when he slept. Shuichi loved the way Eiri’s bangs fell over his face and the way his expression softened. He somehow looked so young and sweet in slumber. It was sometimes the only thing that made him think that Eiri’s scowl wasn’t a permanent feature.  
  
Eiri must have been having sweet dreams too, because the corners of his lips were turned up the slightest bit into a--  
  
Shuichi’s heart skipped a beat with the realization.  
  
Eiri was  _smiling!_  
  
Now was his chance! He glanced over at the nightstand, then nervously licked his lips and turned his attention back to Eiri.  
  
Could he grab his camera without waking him? Shuichi fretted over the consequences of waking Eiri, then suddenly laughed and rolled his eyes at his own silliness.  
  
Of course he could get his camera. If he had just fallen asleep, nothing was going to wake him up for a while.  
  
Shuichi leaned over Eiri to reach for his camera and almost started when he heard Eiri mumble something about desserts, but let out an audible sigh of relief when he realized he was only talking in his sleep.  
  
It was adorable when Eiri babbled nonsense, but Shuichi couldn’t help but wonder, what exactly is a J-pop tart?  
  
He sat back after grabbing his camera and looked at Eiri again. It would have to be his little secret, Shuichi thought as he pressed the button, but he had finally captured Eiri’s smile.  
  
The End.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there you go. Sorry for the gratuitous amounts of fluffy sap, but some saccharine fluffiness at the end was necessary to make up for the game of naked tag preceding it. Hope it didn't give any of you tooth decay. Shu-chan did put Eiri though a little bit of hell, but it all turned out well in the end (after all, I couldn’t *not* let Shuichi have his picture, right?) 
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed my very first multi-chaptered fic, thank you very much for reading<3
> 
> Please be kind to a feedback starved fic writer, and drop a comment or kudos on your way out.


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